Keisha Lance Bottoms makes history — and gives Democrats new hope in the South Keisha Lance Bottoms delivered a historic win for Democrats in Georgia’s gubernatorial election, an optimistic sign for the party in the key battleground state — and the South more broadly.

It’s a major pickup for Democrats in a region where they have been trying to build a sustainable political infrastructure for nearly a decade. Their investments first paid off in the 2020 election cycle, when Joe Biden became the first Democratic presidential nominee to carry the state since 1992. Then Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock won seats in the Senate.

Bottoms’ win is a landmark victory for the party, a new ceiling broken for Democrats in recent Georgia history as she becomes not just the first Black woman elected governor in U.S. history but also the first Democrat to win the Georgia governorship since 1998. And it’s another proof point for those in the party who argue the state shows what years of investment can do for Democrats’ chances in the South.

Propelled by a positive political environment for Democrats as voters soured on the president’s agenda and the soaring cost of living amid the war in Iran, Bottoms was also helped by a strong Democratic state coordinated campaign, led by veterans of Ossoff’s previous statewide runs and his hand-picked party chair, Charlie Bailey.

Bottoms’ win shows how much the state has changed: Once solidly red, years of growing Black and college-educated populations in metro Atlanta have pushed Georgia firmly into swing-state territory.

It is the culmination of the groundwork laid by Stacey Abrams, that she expanded in her near-miss 2018 run against GOP Gov. Brian Kemp, and kept building through her 2022 loss. Now, the task facing Democrats is whether over time they can expand that success to other parts of the region, and whether the investment they’ve laid in Georgia over the course of the last decade can be replicated elsewhere.

Even with the built-in advantage, Bottoms was outspent by her rival, billionaire health care executive Rick Jackson, at every turn of the race. Over the course of the summer, before Bottoms began blitzing the state with television ads, she was outspent by a massive clip, at times greater than five-to-one. Voters stuck with her anyways.

Jackson tried to localize the race and shift the attention away from the White House after his primary win over the summer. It didn’t work. The headwinds, Georgia Republicans say, were just too strong. Rarely, if ever, did Jackson mention the president by name in the run up to the election.

The damage was done, a senior Republican campaign operative in Georgia said, when he tacked towards Trump in the primary. “He did what he had to do to win the primary which cost him the general.

NEW YORK — Rep. Mike Lawler spent years casting himself as a bipartisan Republican unafraid to push back against President Donald Trump. In the end, it wasn’t enough to overcome voters’ widespread frustration with the GOP leader.

Lawler conceded his race for reelection to Democrat Cait Conley late Tuesday night as early returns showed her with a sizable lead.

“Despite these election results tonight, I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to have served in this capacity,“ Lawler said in a concession speech at his election night party in Rockland County.

The battleground Hudson Valley House seat was regarded as one of the most competitive races in the country. Lawler, one of just three Republicans representing a district Kamala Harris won in 2024, had managed to walk an increasingly fine line during the Trump era, emphasizing areas of disagreement with the mercurial president — without unleashing his wrath.

But Conley punctured that image by effectively tying Lawler to Trump, who’s deeply unpopular in the 17th District. She hammered the incumbent over his support for Trump’s tariffs and the ongoing war in Iran, and relied heavily on her experience as an Army veteran. It’s a biography Democrats have increasingly turned to over the last year as the party has sought to rehabilitate its image — and it’s a tactic that’s had some success, as evidenced by Mikie Sherrill’s victory last year in New Jersey’s gubernatorial race. The district is home to a significant population of veterans and first responders.

“My service is a big part of why they do trust me,” Conley told reporters in October. “I’ve had Republicans come up to me and say, ‘I’ve never voted for a Democrat, but I’m voting for you because you’re a veteran.’ There is a level of trust that people get, and when I say I’m going to fight for them, I mean it, because I’ve done it.”A first-time candidate, Conley sought to contrast her service with Lawler’s long career as a politician and political operative, which benefited him in past cycles given his deep ties in the district. Lawler attempted to counter that by attacking Conley for not owning a home in the district — a message that evidently didn’t move enough voters.

Conley’s positioning as a moderate also boosted the hopes of Democrats who had argued they needed a centrist candidate to push back against Lawler’s bipartisan image. The Democratic nominee for the seat in 2024, former Rep. Mondaire Jones, weathered attacks that he was too far left for the district — and he ultimately lost.

That didn’t stop Republicans from trying to replicate that messaging, though. Lawler repeatedly invoked New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani as a symbol of the rise of socialism, betting the district’s proximity to the city would help drive home that point. Conley distanced herself from Mamdani, saying she didn’t want him to campaign for her and denouncing him for his statement on the anniversary of Oct. 7 attacks on Israel.

Conley also voiced her support of Israel on the campaign trail and won the backing of some Jewish groups. Lawler attempted to capitalize on a reliable base of Jewish voters, many of whom have raised concerns about antisemitism on the left and bristled at criticisms of Israel from leaders like Mamdani and Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic U.S. Senate nominee in Michigan. But his longstanding relationship with the community wasn’t enough to win him reelection on Tuesday.

Lawler made Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul a frequent target, seeking to exploit the governor’s middling popularity as she ran for reelection. Hochul easily won reelection on Tuesday.

Lawler, who considered a run for governor this year, blamed Hochul for high costs and criticized a law she recently signed that ended cooperation between local police departments and Immigration and Customs Enforcement on civil immigration cases. Conley avoided Hochul throughout the race, but appeared with her in its closing days.

Lawler also seized on the public’s opposition to data centers, accusing Conley of wanting to build them because of work she’s done for tech firms after her time in the military and the Biden administration. She repeatedly denied the charge, noting that she backed Hochul’s data center moratorium, while Lawler did not. The issue became increasingly fraught over the course of the campaign, with Conley hitting Lawler for data centers being built in Rockland County on his watch — and the incumbent contending that he had nothing to do with them.

Heading into the next Congress, Conley will have to navigate an ideologically diverse New York delegation, joining the likes of democratic socialists Darializa Avila Chevalier and Claire Valdez. Some progressives in the district have already expressed frustration with Conley’s moderate stances on Israel and immigration.

The state Working Families Party endorsed Conley in the general election. The group’s head, Jasmine Gripper, said Conley will be a “great addition to the New York delegation” and cited an “alignment” in priorities when it comes to supporting a public option for health care and taxing the ultra-wealthy.

“This is a numbers game: we're trying to flip the House and we want to have a strong majority,” Gripper said. “The next step is the hardest step. Let’s govern together to win for working families.”California wealth tax backers spin likely defeat before polls close Proponents of California’s wealth tax were already blaming billionaires’ “corrosive influence” for poisoning the campaign before polls even close, a sign the measure’s most ardent backers are pessimistic about its chances of passing.

“They may pull out tonight, through sheer monetary power, a win. They've lied on the ads, lied about taxing people's retirement, lied about what the purpose of this tax was, lied about billionaires leaving,” Rep. Ro Khanna told reporters during a virtual press call.

Khanna, who was joined on the call by key supporters of the proposed wealth tax, promised to keep fighting even if the measure loses by backing future wealth tax proposals.

Their rush to preemptively spin Proposition 40’s struggles as a product of “misinformation” spread by California’s wealthiest residents reinforces what final polls before Election Day showed: that the proposed one-time, 5% tax on billionaires’ assets is underwater with California voters.

It’s also a positive indicator for billionaires and the tech industry, which spent upwards of $300 million to defeat the measure, during an otherwise rough election night defined by a blue wave that seems likely to elevate tech-skeptical Democrats to key positions in Congress.

Democratic state auditor Rob Sand defeated Republican Zach Lahn in Iowa's gubernatorial race, the first time since 2006 that Democrats have won the office.

Sand's victory cements the strength of his political approach. He's drawn national attention for his willingness to criticize Democrats and praise Republicans — and he's led in most polls throughout the race in a state President Donald Trump won by 13 points in 2024.

His victory shows how mad some Iowans are about high fuel prices driven by the war with Iran and other high costs driven by Trump's tariffs.

Democrat Sherrod Brown ousts Ohio Sen. Jon Husted, flipping key Senate seat blue Former Sen. Sherrod Brown is returning to the Senate, notching a major victory for Democrats in their bid to make the Rust Belt state competitive for the party again.

Brown’s victory marks the first time Democrats have won a statewide bid in Ohio since 2018, when Brown won reelection before losing his seat in 2024. His campaign to oust GOP Sen. Jon Husted focused on his support for data centers, rising gas prices and corruption in Ohio’s government, where Husted previously served as lieutenant governor.

Brown will serve the remaining two years of the term and immediately face reelection in 2028.

For the first time since 1988, Texas has elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate.

State Rep. James Talarico prevailed over GOP Attorney General Ken Paxton in a bruising general election that saw a record infusion of cash to the Lone Star State.

Paxton, who defeated incumbent GOP Sen. John Cornyn in a spring primary runoff, was dogged by scandals and widely seen as a flawed nominee. Talarico’s victory is a huge win for Texas Democrats, a breakthrough in a state that the party has long coveted but failed to win in for decades.

Trump says if he was on the ballot ‘we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!’President Donald Trump believes he knows why Republicans are having a tough night.

“I wasn’t on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE! Thank you for your attention to this matter,” he wrote on Truth Social, the first remarks from the president since key races were called.

The president spent the last month stumping in 20 states — from Alaska to Mississippi — to boost Republican turnout in tight contests, repeatedly telling voters to “pretend” that he was on the ballot. He repeatedly acknowledged on the campaign trail that the incumbent president’s party typically does not perform well in the midterms.

“So I'm asking you to pretend that I'm on the ballot. I'm on the ballot. I'm on the ballot. Just one more time,” the president pleaded with voters at the Republican midterm convention in Dallas in September.

The president’s political team had hoped that his presence would encourage voters who don’t usually show up to midterm elections to vote.

Darline Graham’s defeat is Trump’s biggest loss yet Fewer candidates were as closely tied to President Donald Trump as Sen. Darline Graham. Even in deep-red South Carolina, that wasn’t a good thing in 2026.

At every turn of the race, the president spent his political clout to help the late Sen. Lindsey Graham’s younger sister across the finish line. He encouraged her to run for the seat, endorsed her early as other serious candidates were jumping into the race and visited South Carolina three separate times in a busy election year.

And yet, it didn’t work, revealing the limits of Trump’s ability to get little known candidates across the finish line — and the strength of the blue wave that's been building Tuesday night as Democrats make gains across the map.

National Democratic campaign arms waited until the last minute to invest in the race on Democrat Annie Andrews’ behalf. And she still won.

South Carolina Republicans have questioned Graham’s credentials since her debut on the Palmetto State’s political stage earlier this summer. She was a political novice that had a series of public stumbles — including saying on a debate stage that “national security is not my thing” — and relied too much on the president in her campaign.

Graham becomes the first incumbent Republican to lose a Senate race to a Democrat in South Carolina since 1879. Andrews will be the first South Carolina Democrat elected to the upper chamber since 1998.

Georgia GOP chair says his state wasn’t ‘exempt from what appears to be happening everywhere’ Georgia Republican Party Chair Josh McKoon acknowledged that his state was not "exempt from what appears to be happening everywhere" in an interview with POLITICO Tuesday night, just after Democrats flipped the governor's mansion and won reelection to the Senate.

"I think what we're going to find is that while we had increased turnout for a midterm, I think most of the increase is going to be independent and Democratic-leaning voters," he said, as results in other states rolled in showing a rough night for the GOP. "And I think what we're going to find is that a lot of the Republicans stayed home, and so there'll be a lot of people asking, 'Why?'" The results in Georgia — where Democrats won the governor's mansion for the first time since 1998 — underscore the challenges Republicans are facing as they look to rebuild their coalition ahead of 2028, McKoon said.

That includes not just turning out rural voters, but finding ways to make inroads in urban communities as the South grows increasingly diverse.

"We can't simply say we're going to max out rural turnout," McKoon said. "We've got to be thinking about how do we speak to some issues in urban communities that will help us, and I think that's healthy and that's part of what you go through when you have an election like this election." McKoon pointed to the margins Democrats were running in places like Fulton, Gwinnett and Cobb counties, as well as Savannah, Columbus and Macon, as signs of trouble for Republicans.

"There'll be a lot of work to do,” McKoon said. "You know, you go 24 years, roughly, with united Republican control of the state, it's easy to take some of that for granted, it's easy to forget what happens when the other party's in charge, and everybody's about to get a pretty powerful reminder of that.”